Semiconductor image sensor module, method for manufacturing the same as well as camera and method for manufacturing the same

ABSTRACT

A semiconductor image sensor module  1  at least includes a semiconductor image sensor chip  2  having a transistor forming region on a first main surface of a semiconductor substrate and having a photoelectric conversion region with a light incident surface formed on a second main surface on the side opposite to the first main surface and an image signal processing chip  3  for processing image signals formed in the semiconductor image sensor chip  2 , wherein a plurality of bump electrodes  15   a  are formed on a first main surface, a plurality of bump electrodes  15   b  are formed on the image signal processing chip  3 , both the chips  2  and  3  are formed to be laminated through heat dissipating means  4  and the plurality of bump electrodes  15   a  of the semiconductor image sensor chip  2  and the plurality of bump electrodes  15   b  on the image signal processing chip  3  are electrically connected.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a Continuation application of U.S.application Ser. No. 13/442,414, filed on Apr. 9, 2010, which is aContinuation application of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/627,970, filedNov. 30, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,168,932, issued on May 1, 2012, whichis a Continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/810,438,filed Jun. 5, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,626,155, issued on Dec. 1, 2009,which is a Divisional application of U.S. application Ser. No.11/253,255, filed Oct. 18, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,319,217, issued onJan. 15, 2008, which claims priority to Japanese Patent Application JP2004-311062 filed in Japanese Patent Office on Oct. 26, 2004, the entirecontents of which are being incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a semiconductor sensor module in whicha semiconductor image sensor chip and video signal processing chip aremounted and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor sensor moduleas well as a camera and a method for manufacturing the camera.

2. Description of the Related Art

In an imaging device such as a digital still camera or digital videocamera, a semiconductor image sensor chip such as a CCD image sensor andCMOS image sensor is used. A plurality of components such as imagesignal processing chips for processing image signals output from animage pickup element of the imaging device and image pickup lens aremounted on a wiring substrate.

As a related art, a technology for forming a heat sink between an imagepickup element and signal processing chip is shown in FIG. 1 (refer toPatent document 1).

A chip-mounted structure shown in FIG. 1 includes a CCD image sensor 110that is a semiconductor image sensor chip, thin plate-like heat sink 112as heat dissipating means and a signal processing chip 116 that is asemiconductor integrated circuit IC for processing image signals fromthe CCD image sensor. Further, in the above-described chip-mountedstructure, the heat sink 112 formed of material such as aluminum havinghigh heat conductivity is positioned between the CCD image sensor 110and image signal processing chip 116.

Furthermore, there has been disclosed a vision chip in which by means ofa flip-chip bonding method a light-receiving unit 3 that is asemiconductor image sensor chip and an A/D converter alley 7 areconnected by a flip-chip bonding bump electrode to form a module (referto Patent document 2). [0009] [Patent document 1] Published JapanesePatent Application No 2003-33254[0010] [Patent document 2] PublishedJapanese Patent Application No 2003-23573

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With the chip-mounted structure of the Patent document 1, since the CCDimage sensor 110 of the semiconductor image sensor chip and signalprocessing chip 116 that is an IC for processing image signals areelectrically connected, in which the semiconductor image sensor chip isconnected to the image signal processing IC through a contact terminal111 of the CCD image sensor such as a lead frame, resistance andcapacity of the contact terminal need to be considered, which results ininterfering with a high-speed image processing. Further, being containedrespectively in packages, the semiconductor image sensor chip and imagesignal processing IC become large in size as the semiconductor sensormodule. Then, art for directly connecting semiconductor chips by using abump electrode by means of SIP (System in Package) is attractingattention.

However, it has been difficult to combine the semiconductor image sensorchip and image signal processing chip, in which a light-receivingsurface and an electrode pad are provided on the same surface, by usingthe above-described SIP technology and flip chip bonding method withoutmodification. In addition, since the image signal processing chipdissipates heat which is transmitted to the semiconductor image sensorchip to cause a dark current and white noise, it has been difficult tomount the both chips close to each other in a mixed state. Further, notbeing packaged, the image signal processing chip needs to be shieldedfrom light, however, since the electrode pad taken out of the wiringlayer of the front-illuminated type semiconductor image sensor andreceiving surface are formed on the same surface, when the semiconductorimage sensor and image signal processing chip are laminated to beconnected to each other, it has been difficult to shield the imagesignal processing chip from light.

In view of the above-described points, the present invention provides asemiconductor image sensor module and a method for manufacturing thesemiconductor image sensor module as well as a camera and a method formanufacturing the camera, in which a semiconductor image sensor chip andan image signal processing chip are connected with a minimum ofparasitic resistance and capacity and efficient heat dissipation as wellas light shielding are simultaneously obtained.

A semiconductor image sensor according to an embodiment of the presentinvention at least includes: a semiconductor image sensor chip that hasa transistor forming region formed on a first main surface of asemiconductor substrate and that has a photoelectric conversion regionwith a light incident surface formed on a second main surface on theside opposite to the first main surface side and an image signalprocessing chip in which image signals formed in the semiconductor imagesensor chip are processed, wherein a plurality of bump electrodes areformed on the first main surface of the semiconductor image sensor chip,a plurality of bump electrodes are formed on the image signal processingchip, the semiconductor image sensor chip and image signal processingchip are formed by being laminated through heat dissipating means andthe plurality of bump electrodes of the semiconductor image sensor chipand the plurality of bump electrodes on the image signal processing chipare electrically connected.

According to the above embodiment of the semiconductor image sensormodule of the present invention, high-speed signal processing with aminimum-sized module can be performed with the above structure, heatgenerated by the image signal processing chip can be dissipated throughthe heat dissipating means and heat conduction to the semiconductorimage sensor chip can be reduced.

It is preferable that the heat dissipating means is formed of aconductive material and has openings, where a conductive electrode isformed to be surrounded with insulating materials, formed at positionscorresponding to the plurality of bump electrodes therein; and theplurality of bump electrodes of the semiconductor image sensor chip andthe plurality of bump electrodes on the image signal processing chip areelectrically connected.

With the above-described structure, high-speed signal processing with aminimum-sized module can be performed, heat generated by the imagesignal processing chip can be dissipated through the heat dissipatingmeans and heat conduction to the semiconductor image sensor chip can bereduced.

It is preferable that the above-described heat dissipating means isformed of a conductive material and has openings, where a conductiveelectrode formed, formed at positions corresponding to the plurality ofbump electrodes of the heat dissipating means; and the plurality of bumpelectrodes of the semiconductor image sensor chip and the plurality ofbump electrodes on the image signal processing chip are electricallyconnected through the conductive electrode.

With the above-described structure, high-speed signal processing with aminimum-sized module can be performed, heat generated by the imagesignal processing chip can be dissipated through the heat dissipatingmeans and heat conduction to the semiconductor image sensor chip can bereduced.

In addition, it is preferable that the heat dissipating means is formedof two-layered structure of insulating material and conductive material,the openings, where the conductive electrode is formed, are formed atpositions corresponding to the plurality of bump electrodes, and theinsulation material side of the heat dissipating means is in contactwith the semiconductor image signal processing chip and the conductionmaterial side is in contact with the image signal processing chip; andthe plurality of bump electrodes of the semiconductor sensor chip andthe plurality of bump electrodes on the image signal processing chip areelectrically connected through the conductive electrode.

With the above-described structure, high-speed signal processing with aminimum-sized module can be performed with the above structure, heatgenerated by the image signal processing chip can be dissipated throughthe heat dissipating means and heat conduction to the semiconductorimage sensor chip can be reduced.

It is preferable that the plurality of bump electrodes of thesemiconductor sensor chip and plurality of bump electrodes on the imagesignal processing chip are electrically connected by a connectionintermediate member provided with bump electrodes formed on bothsurfaces and the heat dissipating means is formed to be surrounded bythe connection intermediate member.

With the above-described structure, since both the chips can beconnected to each other through the conductive electrodes of theconnection intermediate member and heat generated by the image signalprocessing chip can be dissipated by using the heat dissipating means,heat conduction to the semiconductor image sensor chip can be reduced.

It is preferable that the heat dissipating means also serves as a lightshielding plate with respect to the image signal processing chip.

With the above-described structure, since the semiconductor image sensorchip and image signal processing chip are disposed on both sides of theheat dissipating means in between, even when the semiconductor imagesensor chip is receiving light, the image processing chip itself can beshielded from the light.

According to the embodiment of the semiconductor image sensor module ofthe present invention, since high-speed signal processing with aminimum-sized module can be performed with the above structure and heatgenerated by the image signal processing chip can be dissipated throughthe heat dissipating means, a dark current and white noise to thesemiconductor image sensor chip can be prevented from occurring. Sincethe semiconductor image sensor chip and image signal processing chip aredirectly connected through the bump electrode, parasitic resistance andparasitic capacity can be minimized when connecting both the chips.Further, the image signal processing chip is disposed with the lightreceiving side of the semiconductor image sensor chip of theback-illuminated type and heat dissipating means in between, light canbe shielded.

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor image sensor module accordingto an embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of: forminga plurality of bump electrodes on a first main surface of asemiconductor image sensor chip in which a transistor forming region isformed on a first main surface of a semiconductor substrate and aphotoelectric conversion region having a light incident surface isformed on a second main surface on the opposite side to the first mainsurface, forming a plurality of bump electrodes on an image signalprocessing chip for signal-processing image signals formed in thesemiconductor image sensor chip, forming the semiconductor image sensorchip and the image signal processing chip laminated through heatdissipating means and connecting the plurality of the semiconductorimage sensor chip to the plurality of bump electrodes on the imagesignal processing chip.

A camera according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: asemiconductor image sensor module at least having a semiconductor imagesensor chip that has a transistor forming region formed on a first mainsurface of a semiconductor substrate and that has a photoelectricconversion region with a light incident surface formed on a second mainsurface on the side opposite to the first main surface side and an imagesignal processing chip for processing image signals formed in thesemiconductor image sensor chip, in which a plurality of bump electrodesare formed on the first main surface of the semiconductor image sensorchip and a plurality of bump electrodes are formed on the image signalprocessing chip, the semiconductor image sensor chip and image signalprocessing chip are formed by being laminated through heat dissipatingmeans and the plurality of bump electrodes of the semiconductor imagesensor chip and the plurality of bump electrodes on the image signalprocessing chip are electrically connected; and a lens provided on thesecond main surface side of the semiconductor image sensor module.

A method for manufacturing a camera according to an embodiment of thepresent invention, including the steps of: forming a plurality of bumpelectrodes on a first main surface of a semiconductor image sensor chipin which a transistor forming region is formed on a first main surfaceof a semiconductor substrate and a photoelectric conversion region witha light incident surface is formed on a second main surface on the sideopposite to the first main surface, forming a plurality of bumpelectrodes on an image signal processing chip for processing imagesignals formed in the semiconductor image sensor chip, forming thesemiconductor image sensor chip and the image signal processing chiplaminated through heat dissipating means, connecting the plurality ofthe semiconductor image sensor chip to the plurality of bump electrodeson the image signal processing chip and forming a lens on the secondmain surface side of the semiconductor image sensor module.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 shows a schematic construction of a mounted structure accordingto related art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic constitutional diagram showing an example of asemiconductor image sensor of a back-illuminated type;

FIGS. 3A through 3C are diagrams showing a semiconductor image sensormodule of the back-illuminated type according to an embodiment of thepresent invention, in which FIG. 3A is an exploded perspective view,FIG. 3B is a perspective view of FIG. 3A after assembly and FIG. 3C is aside view of FIG. 3B;

FIG. 4 is a schematic constitutional view showing the semiconductorimage sensor module of the back-illuminated type according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a heat sink(first);

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the heat sink(second);

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the heat sink(third);

FIGS. 8A through 8C are diagrams showing a semiconductor image sensormodule of the back-illuminated type according to another embodiment ofthe present invention, in which FIG. 8A is an exploded perspective view,FIG. 8B is a perspective view of FIG. 8A after assembly and FIG. 8C is aside view of FIG. 8B; and

FIG. 9 is schematic constitutional view of a camera according to anembodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be explained withreference to drawings.

First, a semiconductor image sensor of a back-illuminated type used forthe semiconductor image sensor module according to the present inventionwill be explained. FIG. 2 is a schematic constitutional diagram showingan embodiment of the semiconductor image sensor of a back-illuminatedtype to be used for the semiconductor image sensor module according tothe present invention, and specifically shows a relevant part in thevicinity of a light-receiving portion that is a photo-sensor.

As shown in FIG. 2, a back-illuminated type CMOS solid-state imagingdevice (what is called a semiconductor image sensor) 51 includes: aphoto diode 53 to be the light-receiving portion formed in, for example,an n-type silicon substrate 61, a transfer transistor 54 formed on thesubstrate front surface side of a p-type well region 63 that iscontiguous with a p-type pixel separation region 62 and a plurality ofMOS transistors such as other transistors (reset transistor, addresstransistor, amplifying transistor) 55 and the like, and further, amulti-layered wiring layer 73 formed on the plurality of MOS transistorsthrough an interlayer insulation film 72. The photo-diode 53 is formedof an n-type semiconductor region (substrate) 61, an n-type chargeaccumulating region 61B of high-impurity density, p+ semiconductorregions 64, 68 that become accumulation layers. Beneath the gate of thetransfer transistor is formed a channel region 65. Furthermore, althoughnot shown in the figure, a color filter, on-chip lens and the like areformed on the rear surface side of the substrate. The back-illuminatedtype semiconductor image sensor 51 has a large light-receiving area,because light L is received from the rear surface 70 where no wiringlayer 73 is provided. In addition, since the wiring layer 73 is disposedon the typical front surface side, vignetting of light caused whenreceiving light from the typical front surface side can be preventedfrom occurring and further, bump electrodes (not shown) where receivingsignals are obtained are disposed on the same surface as the wiringlayer 73. Here, respective n+ regions 57, 58, 59 become source-drainregions and respective electrodes 66, 67 become gate regions ofrespective MOS transistors 54, 55.

Next, an embodiment of the semiconductor image sensor module of thepresent invention using the above-described back-illuminated typesemiconductor image sensor will be explained.

FIGS. 3A to 3C are schematic constitutional diagrams showing anembodiment of the back-illuminated type semiconductor image sensormodule of the present invention. FIG. 3A is an exploded perspectiveview, FIG. 3B is a perspective view after assembly and FIG. 3C is a sideview after assembly.

The back-illuminated type semiconductor image sensor module 1 of thepresent invention includes: a semiconductor image sensor chip 2 providedwith a back-illuminated type semiconductor image sensor having aback-illuminated type semiconductor image sensor 51 with a plurality ofbump electrodes 15 a disposed on the above-described wiring layer sideand an image signal processing chip 3 provided with image signalprocessing means for processing image signals from the semiconductorimage sensor chip 2 and with a plurality of bump electrodes 15 bdisposed on the surface thereof, in which the semiconductor image sensorchip 2 and image signal processing chip 3 are laminated with a heat sink4 positioned in between. The heat sink 4 has through-holes 12 atpositions corresponding to the both bump electrodes 15 a, 15 b formedwith conductive electrodes 13 formed in the through-holes 12 and thebump electrodes 15 a, 15 b of both the chips 2 and 3 are electricallyconnected through the conductive electrodes 13 of the heat sink 4.Further, surfaces where the laminated semiconductor image sensor chip 2,heat sink 4 and image signal processing chip 3 are bonded, that is,those bonded surfaces other than the bump electrodes 15 a, 15 b aremechanically connected with adhesive 16 (refer to FIG. 4).

Since the back-illuminated type semiconductor image sensor module 1according to an embodiment of the present invention has a structure inwhich the semiconductor image sensor chip 2 and image signal processingchip 3 are electrically connected through the heat sink 4, heatgenerated from the image signal processing chip 3 can be dissipated andtherefore reduced by the heat sink 4, and heat conduction to thesemiconductor image sensor chip 2 can be prevented. As a result, darkcurrent and white noise of the semiconductor image sensor module can bereduced. Since the heat sink 4 is positioned between the semiconductorimage sensor chip 2 and image signal processing chip 3, even when thesemiconductor image sensor chip 2 is receiving light, the heat sink 4can shield the image processing chip 3 from light.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the semiconductor image sensormodule according to another embodiment of the present invention. Thatis, FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a relevant part inwhich a memory chip is mounted together with the chips 2, 3 and heatsink 4 of FIG. 3. A semiconductor image sensor module 11 according tothis embodiment includes: the back-illuminated type semiconductor imagesensor chip 2 is disposed on one surface of the heat sink 4 through thebump electrodes 15 a and further, the image signal processing chip 3 andmemory chip 7 are disposed on the other surface of the heat sink 4through respective bump electrodes 15 b and 15 c. The bump electrodes 15a, 15 b and 15 c of respective chips 2, 3 and 7 are electricallyconnected to the conductive electrodes 13 formed in the through-holes 12of the heat sink 4 and further are strongly bonded mechanically withadhesive 16.

The image signal processing chip 3 has a signal processing portion 18,and wiring layer 19 and bump electrodes 15 b connecting thereto. Thesignal processing portion 18 performs operational processing of signalsoutput from the semiconductor image sensor chip 2. The memory chip 7 hasa memory portion 28, and wiring layer 29 and bump electrodes 15 cconnecting thereto. For example, nonvolatile memory, DRAM and the likeare used as the memory chip 7. The memory chip is typically used, forexample, for compression/decompression of image signals and the sequencethereof is; from image sensor.fwdarw.image signal processingchip.fwdarw.memory.fwdarw.image signal processing chip to be output.Further, when decompression is performed, in the case of vectordetection (detection of movement) of animated images, an imageprocessing sequence is; from image sensor.fwdarw.image signal processingchip.fwdarw.memory.fwdarw.image signal processing chip to decideinformation to be skipped (only animated information is made to besignals, and regarding background information, images output earlier areused). Further, there is a case of the memory being used for noisecorrection in which noise is stored to be interpolated and cancelled.The sequence thereof is; from image sensor.fwdarw.image signalprocessing chip.fwdarw.memory.fwdarw.image signal processing chip(interpolation/cancellation of image signals in the image sensor) to beoutput.

The semiconductor image sensor chip 2 can be made of: a back-illuminatedtype semiconductor image sensor 51 including a plurality of pixelsformed into a matrix, each of which is made of a photo-diode 53 and aplurality of MOS transistors on the semiconductor substrate shown inFIG. 2 and multi-layered wiring layers 73 formed on the front surfaceside of the substrate through an interlayer insulation film 72, and areinforcing support substrate 74 such as a silicon substrate and thelike, for example, jointed to the wiring layers 73. In this case, thebump electrodes 15 a are connected to a conductive layer penetrating thesupport substrate 74 and are formed on the support substrate 74.

In the back-illuminated type semiconductor image sensor 51, aphoto-diode 53 receives light entered from the rear surface 70 side andelectric charges to which photoelectric-conversion is performed areoutput as signals to the bump electrodes 15 a through the wiring layers73 on the front surface. Signals output from the semiconductor imagesensor chip 2 are input as a signal into the image signal processingchip 3 through the conductive electrodes 13 formed in the heat sink 4connected to the bump electrodes 15 a.

Further, in the memory chip 7, signals are input and output through thebump electrodes 15 c of the memory chip 7 and conductive electrodes 13.

Since the semiconductor image sensor module 11 according to thisembodiment has a structure in which the semiconductor image sensor chip2, the image signal processing chip 3, and memory chip 7 areelectrically connected through the heat sink 4, heat generated from theimage signal processing chip 3 can be dissipated and reduced by the heatsink 4 and heat conduction to the semiconductor image sensor chip 2 canbe prevented. As a result, dark current and white noise of thesemiconductor image sensor module can be reduced. Since the heat sink 4is positioned between the semiconductor image sensor chip 2 and imagesignal processing chip 3, even when the semiconductor image sensor chip2 is receiving light, the image processing chip 3 and memory chip 7 canbe shielded from light.

FIGS. 5 to 7 are cross-sectional views showing respective examples ofthe heat dissipating means explained above.

The heat sink 4 shown in FIG. 5, which is the heat dissipating means, isan example using a metal conductive material 4 a such as an aluminumplate and copper plate as materials. In this case, through-holes 12 areformed in a conductive material 4 a and conductive electrodes 13surrounded with insulative material 14 such as glass or the like areformed in the through-holes 12.

The heat sink 4 shown in FIG. 6, which is the heat dissipating means, isan example that uses as materials an insulative material 4 b such as,for example, ceramic substrate or the like. In this case, thethrough-holes 12 are formed in the insulative material 4 b andconductive electrodes 13 are formed in the through-holes.

Further, the heat sink 4 shown in FIG. 7, which is the heat dissipatingmeans, is made of laminated plate 6 in which the heat sink 4 andheat-insulation-plate plate 5. In the laminated plate 6, the heat sink 4is made to be in contact with the image signal processing chip 3 side,and the heat-insulation-plate plate 5 side is disposed to be in contactwith the semiconductor image sensor chip 2 side. Regarding the materialof the laminated plate 6, as material for the heat sink 4, insulativematerials such as ceramic and the like, for example, are used, and inthe case of the insulative materials, the conductive electrodes 13 areformed in the through-holes 12. As material for the heat sink 4, whenconductive materials such as, for example, Al and copper are used,through-holes 12 are formed, and inner-walls of the through-holes 12 aresurrounded with insulative materials such as glass and the like tothereby form the conductive electrodes in the through-holes 12. Asmaterials for the heat-insulation-plate plate 5, resin or the like canbe used, for example.

When the laminated plate 6 is used, heat transmitting to thesemiconductor image sensor chip 2 can be prevented by theheat-insulation-plate plate 5 while heat generated from the image signalprocessing sensor chip 3 is dissipated most efficiently by the heatinsulation plate 4.

FIGS. 8A to 8C are schematic constitutional diagram showing anotherembodiment of the semiconductor image sensor module according to thepresent invention. FIG. 8A is an exploded perspective view, FIG. 8B is aperspective view after assembly, and FIG. 8C is a side view afterassembly.

A semiconductor image sensor module 21 according to this embodimentincludes: the semiconductor image sensor chip 2, image signal processingchip 3, and between the chips the heat sink 4 and connectionintermediate member 8 surrounding the heat sink 4 provided forelectrically connecting both the chips 2 and 3. Specifically, the heatsink 4 has no electrical contact with the respective bump electrodes 15a, 15 b of the semiconductor image sensor chip 2 and image signalprocessing chip 3, and the respective bump electrodes 15 a, 15 b areelectrically connected with the conductive electrodes 23 of theconnection intermediate member 8. The connection intermediate member 8is formed in U shape and has the function of electrically connecting thebump electrodes 15 a of the semiconductor image sensor chip 2 of theback-illuminated type to the bump electrodes 15 b of the image signalprocessing chip 3. The heat sink 4 is inserted into the U-shapedconnection intermediate member 8 and the heat sink 4 is bonded toelectrically insulate the semiconductor image sensor chip 2 from theimage signal processing chip 3.

In order to electrically connect the bump electrodes 15 a, 15 b of boththe chips 2, 3, the U-shaped connection intermediate member 8 can bemade such that through-holes 22 are formed in the insulation plate andthe conductive electrodes 23 are formed in the through-holes 22. Otherthan that, what is called silicon interposer, for example, can be usedfor the connection intermediate member 8.

For the heat sink 4, for example, aluminum and copper explained earlieror ceramic that is an insulative material or the like can be used. Inaddition the laminated plate 6 may be used in which the above-describedheat sink and heat insulating plate are laminated. The heat sink 4 candissipate heat particularly generated from the image signal processingchip 3. This embodiment shows an example in which the through-holes maynot be used for the heat sink 4.

FIG. 9 shows a schematic constitutional view of a camera according to anembodiment of the present invention. The camera according to thisembodiment is a video camera capable of picking up moving images.

The camera according to this embodiment includes: a semiconductor imagesensor module 11, optical system 210, shutter device 211, drive circuit212 and signal processing circuit 213.

On receiving image light from the subject, the optical system 210focuses an image on the imaging surface of the semiconductor imagesensor module 11. With this, relevant signal charges are accumulated inthe semiconductor image sensor module 11 for a certain period of time.

The shutter device 211 controls periods of irradiation and shielding oflight on the semiconductor image sensor module 11.

The drive circuit 212 supplies drive signals for controllingtransferring operation of the semiconductor image sensor module andshutter operation of the shutter device 211. Electric charge transfer ofthe semiconductor image sensor module 11 is carried out with drivesignals (timing signal) supplied from the drive circuit 212. The signalprocessing circuit 213 carries out various kinds of signal processing.Image signals, to which the signal processing is performed, are storedin a storage medium such as memory or are output to a monitor.

As another embodiment of the present invention, for example, there issuch a semiconductor image sensor module that includes an analog/digitalconversion circuit (ADC) loaded on the semiconductor image sensor chip2, and the image signal processing chip 3 and memory chip 7 that aredisposed through the heat sink 4 and electrically connected.

According to the semiconductor image sensor module of the embodiments ofthe present invention, since heat generated from the image signalprocessing chip can be reduced by the heat sink, the occurrences of thedark current and white noise to the semiconductor image sensor chip canbe restrained. In addition, since the semiconductor sensor chip andimage signal processing chip are laminated with the heat sink positionedin between, a layout area can be made smaller than the case of beingdisposed in a plane, which enables the semiconductor image sensor moduleto be loaded on devices such as mobile phone units requiringminiaturization. Further, since the chips are electrically connectedthrough the bump electrodes, high-speed signal processing can beperformed in the image signal processing chip and high qualities areobtained as a module. Since the semiconductor image sensor chip andimage signal processing chip are directly connected through the bumpelectrodes, both the chips can be connected with a minimum parasiticresistance and parasitic capacity. In a packaged CCD image sensor andheat sink according to related art, the whole of the package issubjected to heat and the heat is made to escape through the heat sink,on the contrary, in the present invention, heat locally occurred in theimage signal processing chip or the like which performs high-speedprocessing can be dissipated efficiently through the heat sink. Further,in the structure where a typical SIP technology is used and thesemiconductor image sensor chip is connected to the image signalprocessing chip without the heat sink, the partly highly-heated imagesignal processing chip has unfavorably influence on the semiconductorimage sensor chip directly and partly laminated. However, according tothe above-described constitution of the present invention, suchunfavorable influence can be restrained. Hence, high-speed processingcan be performed with respect to each pixel or each column (with eachsignal line), or parallel processing by parallel output of a pluralityof pixels such as four pixels and the like. Further, as described in therelated art, high-speed processing by reducing parasitic capacity andparasitic resistance with respect to wire bonding can be made.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occurdepending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they arewithin the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

1. An imaging unit comprising: a back-illuminated semiconductor imagesensor including a first substrate coupled to a second substrate, thefirst substrate including an image sensor and the second substrateincluding an image processing unit, wherein a first electrode and asecond electrode are formed on a first surface of the first substrate, athird electrode and a fourth electrode are formed on a first surface ofthe second substrate, an intermediate layer is formed between the firstsubstrate and the second substrate, the first electrode is electricallyconnected to the third electrode through the intermediate layer by afirst conductive electrode formed in a first through-hole, the secondelectrode is electrically connected to the fourth electrode through theintermediate layer by a second conductive electrode formed in a secondthrough-hole.
 2. The imaging unit according to claim 1, wherein, withinthe first through-hole and the second through-hole, an insulativematerial is formed around the first conductive electrode and the secondconductive electrode.
 3. The imaging unit according to claim 1, whereinthe first electrode, second electrode, third electrode, and fourthelectrode are bump electrodes.
 4. The imaging unit according to claim 1,wherein the intermediate layer includes a heat dissipating unit.
 5. Theimaging unit according to claim 1, wherein the intermediate layerincludes a U-shaped structure, the first through-hole and the secondthrough-hole being formed through the U-shaped structure.
 6. The imagingunit according to claim 5, wherein the heat dissipating unit is formedto extend within the arms of the U-shaped structure.
 7. The imaging unitaccording to claim 6, wherein the U-shaped structure is a siliconinterposer.
 8. The imaging unit according to claim 1, wherein theimaging unit is a CCD image sensor.
 9. The imaging unit according toclaim 1, wherein the back-illuminated semiconductor image sensor is aMOS image sensor.
 10. The imaging unit according to claim 1, wherein amemory unit is formed on at least the first substrate.
 11. The imagingunit according to claim 1, wherein a memory unit is formed on at leastthe second substrate.
 12. The imaging unit according to claim 4, whereinthe heat dissipating unit includes a heat-conducting layer formed of aheat-conducting material.
 13. The imaging unit according to claim 4,wherein the intermediate layer includes a heat-insulating layer formedof a heat-insulative material.
 14. The imaging unit according to claim4, wherein the heat dissipating unit is formed of a heat-conductinglayer formed of a heat-conducting material, and the intermediate layerfurther includes a heat-insulating layer formed of a heat-insulativematerial.
 15. The imaging unit according to claim 14, wherein theheat-conducting layer is between the first surface of the firstsubstrate and the heat-insulating layer.
 16. The imaging unit accordingto claim 15, wherein the heat dissipating unit is in contact with thefirst surface of the first substrate.
 17. The imaging unit according toclaim 15, wherein the heat-insulating layer is in contact with the firstsurface of the second substrate.